Canon PowerShot SD970 IS
Digital Camera Review
Jun 19, 2009
- By Steve Morgenstern
4.1
The Canon PowerShot SD970 IS is a capable 12.1-megapixel point and shoot with a 5x zoom. We found image quality was consistently very good, and movies shot at 720p were impressive.
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| PowerShot SD970 IS Prices |
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Noise (9.99)
The speckles and imperfections you see in digital photos, usually in areas of flat color, are called image noise, and the Canon was better than most compact cameras at keeping this problem under control. To test for image noise, we use two illumination levels, a bright 3000 lux and a restrained 60 lux, which corresponds to a fairly low indoor lighting level. We shoot the color chart at each available ISO level, and use Imatest to analyze the resulting images for noise. Click here for more on how we test noise.
As shown in the chart below, the SD970 IS noise performance follows the same pattern in both bright and dim lighting, with not much difference in visible noise between the two. The camera starts out at its lowest ISO setting with image noise below 1%, a good result, and the noise level climbs steadily but not sharply as ISOs increase. The decrease at ISO 800 indicates that an automatic noise reduction filter kicks in at this level.
| Noise Reduction Level Comparison |
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The table below shows actual-size crops taken from our test photos at four ISO levels.
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ISO 80 |
ISO 400 |
ISO 800 |
ISO 1600 |
| 60 Lux |
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| 3000 Lux |
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The Canon is the most consistent performer in our test group. While the Fuji and Casio remain lower in the midrange ISOs, when we reach the ISO 800 mark and beyond the Canon produces substantially cleaner photos, and its at these higher ISO settings that image noise is most noticeable.
| Noise Comparisons |
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The overall noise score is based on measurements across the ISO range. As shown below, the Canon SD970 IS and Casio EX-FC100 posted nearly identical scores, with the Fuji close behind, and only the Sony delivering problematic performance here.
| Noise Score Comparison |
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ISO (7.50)
The SD970 IS provides full-resolution ISO settings from 80 to 1600, which can be set manually or left on ISO Auto for the camera to control. There is also an ISO 3200 setting available at greatly reduced 1600 x 1200 (2 megapixel) resolution.
NOTE: The images above are not used in our testing or scoring, but are included here to show real-world examples of the differences between cameras at the various ISO settings.
